G. Gedney Godwin "budget line" swords

Just need to get an Accusharp, and then wait until Spring and the warmer weather...

Bah, humbug! There are snowmen out there, ready to be smited

Mind you, I'm not an expert, but from what I have read a cavalry sabre relied mainly on the mass and momentum of a moving horse behind it for its effectiveness, and therefore didn't need to have a particularly heavy blade. Naval cutlasses, OTOH, since they tended to have shorter blades and DIDN'T have a moving horse to add momentum to the swing (or thrust), had heavier blades so there would be some mass there.

Some sabers could be considered frail; the US M1872 cavalry saber comes to mind. In my experience 18th and 19th century cavalry sabers appear to be durable enough for their intended purpose.

I would think that point of balance probably has a lot to do with perceived bulk, too (at least as far as handling is concerned). One of my co-workers is into martial arts, and when I showed him my cutlass he said it felt blade-heavy compared to katanas he had handled, despite the fact that most katanas have the same or slightly longer blade length as the cutlass. One of the Civil War era cavalry sabres had the sobriquet of "Old Wristbreaker" (Cold Steel sells a replica), although it wasn't substantially heavier than most other sabers of its time. My guess is that it probably was biased weight-forward, which would be a help if you were trying to (literally! ;D) disarm somebody in a cavalry charge

A good way to get around the dial up problem is to re-size your pics. Easy download and free to boot. Will change a big file size pic to around 65kb for internet posting. That shouldnt strain your dial-up.
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Download and save image re-sizer, then right click on your pic and save as small size. It only makes a copy of the picture and will leave the original alone. Then you post the small pic.